Launchings

Launching into the Next Two Years

This is an exciting and challenging time to be taking on the presidency of
the MAA, six year shy of its centennial. The economic situation is difficult.
Those of us in academia find our colleges and universities squeezed from many
directions. Public funding is drying up. Endowments are taking a hit. Student
enrollments are increasing as people enter or stay in college to improve their
chances of finding employment or to postpone entering the job market. At the
same time, there is greater demand for financial aid. We are all being asked
to do more with less.
The MAA itself is not immune to these economic difficulties. We have always
run a lean operation. Even before the financial crisis we were struggling
with declining print subscriptions to our journals, a symptom of the broad
transition from print to electronic delivery. Our financial reserves, which
had come within a whisker of equaling one year’s operating expenses,
have been set back. We are concerned about whether membership numbers will
hold up as our members find themselves under increasing financial strain.

For all of these institutions, the MAA included, this is a time to refocus
on the core mission, to think about what is really important, and to direct
our resources not just to preserving but to strengthening that which is essential
to who we are. It means being especially attuned to the needs of those we
serve and focusing on how we can do what is needed of us more effectively.
In our nations, in our schools, within the MAA, this is a time of opportunity.

In the year and a half since my election, I have learned a great deal about
the MAA and come to understand it more deeply. As I guide it through the next
two years, I will need to be particularly attentive to the needs of all of
our members as well as those of the other communities it serves, and I will
be guided by my personal sense of our core mission. I would like to describe
how I see this core mission of the MAA. Given my own proclivities, I will
do this through an historical lens.

The MAA was founded in 1915 to provide a home for The American Mathematical
Monthly. This and our other journals and publications have always been
at the center of who we are, “The preeminent provider of expository
mathematics.” [1] Immediately following its founding,
MAA Sections began to appear, establishing the other central feature of the
MAA: This is a grassroots organization that relies on local networks and volunteers.

In the 1940s and ‘50s, the mission deepened. The MAA took on responsibility
for guiding and shaping the undergraduate curriculum, what would become CUPM
(Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics) and eventually encompass
other education committees. And the MAA began what would grow into AMC (American
Mathematics Competitions), AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination),
USAMO (USA Mathematical Olympiad), and the training of the US team to compete
in the International Mathematical Olympiad. These were natural outgrowths
of the original vision. If we are to take seriously our task of sharing good
mathematics as broadly as possible, we need to encourage and provide outlets
for mathematically talented young people, and we must work to improve the
undergraduate preparation of future users of mathematics.

Two other significant and natural expansions occurred in the 1990s. The first
was Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching). It was no longer enough for
MAA to provide opportunities for college faculty to get together and guidance
in how to make their teaching more effective, it also needed to make a special
effort to support, encourage, and nurture new faculty. In the tradition of
the original Sections that created local networks, one of the strongest aspects
of Project NExT has been the formation of cohorts of Fellows who continue
to support each other via listserves and gatherings at meetings.

The second new program, officially launched in 2000, was the creation of
the SIGMAAs (Special Interest Groups of the MAA), communities built around
common interests that, in this electronic age, do not need geographic proximity
in order to flourish. I find it very appropriate that the first of these was
SIGMAA on RUME (Research on Undergraduate Mathematics Education), a community
of people dedicated to the use of research to better understand how we can
improve undergraduate education.

This, then, is our core. We are a grassroots organization of many interwoven
communities coming together to share our enthusiasm for mathematics with each
other and the rest of the world and to sustain each other as we identify and
encourage mathematical talent and prepare the next generations who will use
mathematics. Our focus always has been and needs to remain on collegiate level
mathematics, but that focus reaches beyond those who are likely to be future
members of our communities. It encompasses the preparation and support of
K-12 teachers and the education of all college students.

But it is not enough to have a sense of the past and who we are, I will also
be setting directions. I have a vision of the MAA as the pre-eminent source
to which mathematicians turn when they are teaching a course for the first
time, looking for examples to use in class, wanting to learn more about the
use of electronic resources or active learning, or seeking to improve the
effectiveness of their department in attracting, encouraging, and preparing
students. This has always been an important component of who we are, but we
need to be the first place that people turn to for information and ideas.There
are a lot of good people working on this. A big part of my job is to encourage
them. Another big part is to listen to the many good suggestions that are
out there and to help bring the best and most viable of them to reality.

It is a humbling task to take on the leadership of this sprawling and dynamic
organization, but, as I said at the beginning, I am excited about these next
two years. There are opportunities to build on our many strengths as we provide
services to help our members be the very best mathematicians and educators
they can be, even in tough times, and to continue communicating the beauty
and importance of mathematics.

David Bressoud
is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics at Macalester College in St. Paul,
Minnesota, and president-elect of the MAA. You can reach him at bressoud@macalester.edu.
This column does not reflect an official position of the MAA.